Poachers attempt to kill rhino in Kaziranga, decamp with horn

Guwahati  :  Barely 48 hours after the recovery of a rhino carcass without the horn in the high security Kaziranga National Park, suspected poachers shot at another rhino inside the national park Wednesday and decamped with its horn.

The incident came to light when forest officials in the park spotted the rhino Wednesday, without its horn and with severe bullet injuries at Bagori forest range under Karbi Anglong district.

“The poachers have shot at the rhino and chopped off the horn when it was still alive. Veterinarians are now trying to save the rhino,” said a senior official of the park.

Sources said the injured rhino, along with two others, strayed out of the park Tuesday searching for higher ground as most of the areas inside the park had submerged due to floods.

“The forest guards tried to bring it back to the park till late night Tuesday but failed,” said the sources while adding that poachers had taken advantage of the situation and tried to kill it.

On Monday last, forest officials deployed in the national park recovered a rhino without its horn.

Although the forest officials said the carcass was an old one and that the rhino died a natural death due to floods, the missing horn of the animal indicated a probable poaching angle to it.

The famed national park of Assam has been facing severe floods since last week. The surging waters have inundated more than 80 percent of the total land mass of the park. The flood waters have also washed away more than 100 anti-poaching camps of the forest guards inside the park.

The park was also hit by the worst-ever floods in recent times in June this year, which killed over 600 animals of the park including rhinos and elephants.